Anyone Want to Watch a Movie . . .

Ok, in addition to Tropical Storm Debby, this weekend brought several home improvement projects for me. Let's start with the little one. I tried staining the DVD holder my Go-to-Guy (GTG) made for me.

These are obviously the befores.

This was the before for the fireplace with bookshelves.
Ha, ha, ha! Actually, only took about 1 hour to put together,
plus, waiting 7 days for the new non-cracked top piece to arrive.

The goal is to get the DVD holder under our fireplace
(yes, it's electric and a long story but after much
debating, we all decided to keep it. We know, it's not real fire, but it does give off a super
nice glow and still gives that warm and cozy feeling!).

Trying to match stain was pretty much impossible, at least for a rookie like me. I took the shelf in to Home Depot and went with the darkest stain I could get that wasn't black. After about 4 coats, lots of sanding and 2 Mike's Hard Black Cherries, I decided that this was a no-go. (Sorry, no pixs, let's blame it on the Mike's!). I had no kids that night so I drag my husband with me back to Home Depot to try to find a paint that will come close. This piece is meant to be utilitarian, not decorative so at this point, I don't really care. After looking at about 100 paint swatches, finding my husband (twice) who is trying to get to the exit and around the corner to Tijuana Flats (he HATES, and yes I know hate is a strong work, but he HATES any kind of home improvement place. I, on the other hand, could sit in the lumber section for hours just breathing in the fresh cut wood!), and dealing with the yahoos who kept giving their input (non-professionals, I mean seriously, who hangs out at Home Depot on a Friday night??), we selected our paint and headed out to dinner.

Me being me (thanks Mom), as soon as I walked in the door, I pulled out my roller and painted the cabinet. (Again, no pictures, blame this on the sangria at TF!) Then I waited, and waited for the paint to dry. Finally, it was dry and I was able to take the below -

Isn't this attractive?

But put them in here and it's lovely!!  I have 3 drawers that hold
70 movies each. Unfortunately, all the drawers are filled
and I didn't even get all our kiddie movies in them yet.
Time to start weeding out . . . 

. . .  and we end up with this. 

 All-in-all, I am thrilled with the final outcome. The drawers are on full-extension slides so it is easy to get to all the movies. I am not in love with the drawer pulls, and found some that would be perfect, but those are special order from Home Depot so I will just wait to get them down the road.

Now, I know I said projects so here is a sneak preview -

What, you ask? No more 1980s railings? More to come but that is for another post!